Summer is Coming - So Are Employment Tribunal Costs

Winter is over, confirmed by the passing of Easter. The weather is improving and we are all looking forward to summer. Physiologically the sun should make everyone feel less miserable; it certainly does in my case. The regulations designed to reduce the number of Employment Tribunals have been introduced - should that make me feel better still? It should, but it doesn’t. Why?
Britain is following the United States with their claim culture and we will still have the “No Win No Fee” solicitors and HR consultants, all of whom are out to make a living. The new regulations remove the prescriptive requirements for certain disciplinary procedures but, as I have mentioned on my blog before, they introduce the word “reasonable”. What is reasonable to you may not be to me, and may certainly not be to an employee who loses his job. Also it is fairly widely known that if the employee (or ex-employee) puts in a claim it is usually cheaper for the employer to pay them off than to fight it at Tribunal, as employers generally have to stand their own legal costs. If the employee has a very poor claim they can still file for Tribunal knowing that the employer is likely to offer them a few thousand pounds to go away rather than incur the legal costs and inconvenience of fighting the case. My company HR4UK.com feels this is not right and has changed the wording in the contracts of employment provided for our clients to increase the chance of the employer’s ability to bring a claim against the employee for costs. I will keep you posted, as this will be tested in Tribunal in the coming months.

DO YOU START YOUR HOLIDAY YEAR ON 01 APRIL?

Most employers are aware that on 01 April 2009 the minimum holiday entitlement went up from 24 days per year to 28. Many hundreds of thousands of employers still have their holiday year starting 01 April and have not spotted the possible problem.

If you are an employer and give your staff 30 days holiday or more, including Bank Holidays, then there’s no problem. However, if you need to watch the pennies and only give the minimum 28 including Bank Holidays then the change in law could cost you money. How, I hear you asking yourself?

The problem occurs because Easter is sometimes in March and sometimes in April. Think about it - you will realise that if Easter is in April two years running, there is only one Easter in each of your holiday years, therefore no problem. However if it comes in April one year and March the next you have two Easters, or ten Bank Holidays not the usual eight, in your holiday year. What are you going to do - pay the staff an extra two days holiday? Alternatively tell them they must retain ten days from their 28 to cover the days the business is closed; that option would not go down very well I am sure! The following year there would be no Easters in your holiday year; now what are you to do? If your contracts say 4 weeks plus Bank Holidays you are illegal as this only totals 26 days.

The simple solution is to change the start date of your holiday year to almost any other month of the year. I hope this illustrates that keeping up to date with the law is one thing, seeing the implications is another. This is why I believe using a good external HR provider to be important for any small business; naturally I would like it to be HR4UK!